If you love the feeling of fresh bar tape, and love the classic look of black leather tape, but don't want to fork over the money $20-70, I have a solution for you!
I have made my own very nice road bike handlebar tape from a discarded mtn bike tube.
(tube strips are also good for tying light weight stuff to your rear rack)

Bicycle built with new "metal printing" technology, called SLS or Selective Laser Sintering. A computer layers and melts powdered metal alloys according to a computer program, (CAD), into a 3D, solid, precision part.

The lugs on this bicycle were made from steel by SLS, and the computer has a program on it to build custom carbon-tubed bikes of other sizes by making lugs altered to fit the alternate sizes.

I like this style a lot. I once had a frame that had "lugs" made of aluminum tubes welded conventionally, but the main tubes were carbon fiber and bonded to the "lugs". I think Nashbar sells frames now with carbon seat and chain stays for around $100-200.

http://images.craigslist.org/5O35Z35...53208b14c6.jpg
Diamondback 1990's WCF frame mtn bike. If you can find one in good condition, this would be great to build up if you like hardtails. the frame wasn't too flexy but did have a strange feeling of vibration over rough ground. It was pleasant, though, because it was the frame absorbing shock, like a nice graphite baseball bat vs the hand-wringing impact of a standard aluminum bat.

Evie is a determined young rider who pushed her way into championship levels of racing in just a couple years. Some have criticized her rise to stardom, but it looks like she is just plain fast and an amiable team-mate, so I don't see why anyone would put her down. I like her story, about a full time worker who rides bikes, who discovers she has speed legs and above average ability, and goes on to seriously compete, on any gear she can get hold of.

If you are refitting an older bike and trying to follow a 1970's style or classic loaded touring bike style, here is a crank that might work well for you!
If you have a cottered crank bike, and find a suitable square taper BB (Ritchey made a lot of <$20 cup and cone BB's that would work well) you can convert to square taper cranks and not disturb the look of the bike.

This is a $17 replacement crank that looks very much like the famous and almost cliche T/A cranksets.

If you have a derailleur that is capable of interacting with the 34tooth freewheels, you should have plenty of range, with this 52/40 combo. This should work well with very old front derailleurs such as what came on 1970's Schwinn road bikes.

Whatever makes you happy makes you faster. I had a nice white Caad3 with colormatched components (gray and red-anodized). It was fast, but I think it was because of the sealed bearing derailleur pulleys and botttom bracket, and copious amounts of chain lube.

Any grassy field can become a sports park now! Even if you don't have the supplies for race-course style tape and obstacles, a few people with bikes and a pickup truck can make up a course, using anything you find, from old 2x4s, tires, cans, flag tape, duct tape, existing fences, parked cars, etc, marking the course with simple objects, spray paint (field paint), chalk, weedeater trimming, truck drags (4x4 /ATV also work, to drag a grate or fence panel with some bricks on it as a grader).

NOTE: of course I am not supporting illegal destruction of property. The video below shows a course made on a park that is/was under construction, and surely they have approval from the city. There is a bike shop in Dallas that holds CX races in the gritty parking lot behind it's old building.